Saints deny they ran up score on Falcons last season

The Atlanta Falcons feel like the Saints ran up the score on them on their last trip in to New Orleans.

And they haven’t forgotten.

The Saints won the meeting 45-16 on Dec. 26 last season as quarterback Drew Brees stayed in the game throwing the ball late in an effort to break Dan Marino’s record for passing yardage in a single season, a mark he got.

“It wasn’t our intent to run the score up,” Saints interim coach Joe Vitt said, according to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was our intent to get the record out of the way so that we could move on to new business, but I think (Falcons coach) Mike (Smith) knows (Saints coach) Sean (Payton) well enough and Sean knows Mike well enough that that’s not what we are in the business of, embarrassing people and running scores up. That’s not what we do.”

That’s what they did and maybe it is one reason Falcons wide receiver Roddy White is fired up for the meeting on Sunday. The Saints were leading 38-16 when they began a possession on the Falcons’ 33-yard line. Brees passed five times in a six-play drive, culminating in a nine-yard touchdown pass to Darren Sproles.

“I don’t like nothing about the Saints,” White said, according to Ledbetter. “The colors. The city. Nothing. But they’ve got some good food, though. Other than the food, nothing.

“This would make their whole entire month of November if they can mess up our record,” White said. “We know that. You don’t have to get people up for this game in the locker room. We all know what this game is about. We all know that we have to go out there and get after it.”

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